Trump lashes out at North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders over defense spending

Trump lashes out at North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders over defense spending

Trump lashes out at North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders over defense spending

Melinda Barton
|
12 July, 2018, 01:34

Trump, in a testy exchange with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, took issue with the US protecting Germany when the European nation is making deals with Russian Federation.

"If you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russian Federation because they supply", the president said.

Asked about Trump calling Germany Russia's "captive", Cornyn said: "I would not choose that word but I understand what he's getting at".

Trump's comments referred to Berlin's support for the construction of the $12 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring gas across the Baltic Sea into the European continent.

They account for a major portion of the USA agricultural exports to China.

"The alliance is very important and I think there's ways of communicating our displeasure with things without trying to insult and break the alliance apart", said Corker.

President Trump attends a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, Belgium, ahead of a NATO Summit on July 11. Whereas the United States in actual numbers is paying 4.2% of a much larger GDP. "I don't think it is fair to the United States, so we're going to have to do something because we're not going to put up with it".

And with that, he went on to push allies at the summit to double their commitment on defence spending.

Contrary to Trump's assertion, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation nations committed in 2014 to spending at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence, but only by 2024.

"President Trump makes public adversaries out of our friends, and turns our adversary, who has been attacking America's democracy, into his fawned-over ally", Kerry said.

"We're supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia", Trump said in the presence of reporters at a pre-summit meeting at the residence of the USA ambassador to Belgium. "And I think that leaders are also looking forward to your thoughts about the meeting with President Putin later on". Germans wouldn't agree with that. The president also imposed a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion worth of items last week, which some lawmakers believe should have required congressional approval.

Trump asserted earlier Wednesday that Germany is "totally controlled" by and "captive to Russia" because of a pipeline project.